A pinkish coffinfish with a whitish underside, and deep red on the underside of outer half of the pectoral and pelvic fins, and on the lower margin of the tail. The Redshoes Coffinfish has a lure bearing many pink and whitish cirri, a relatively narrow illicial trough, and the inner mouth cavity, gill chamber and gill arches are greyish to blackish.

Redshoes Coffinfish,
Chaunax mulleusHo, Roberts & Stewart 2013

More Info

Distribution

Occurs in the Great Australian Bight, South Australia, and on the Lord Howe Rise in the Australian EEZ. Elsewhere the species is known from New Zealand and the southern Louisville Ridge in the Southwest Pacific. The Redshoes Coffinfish has been collected from sandy to rubble substrates in depths of 720-1200 metres.

Illicial trough relatively small, slightly concave, width less than diameter of pupil; illicium relatively short, stout; esca with a small central tongue bearing many thin cirri; 1-3 pairs (usually one pair) of spinules on each side of the lateral-line neuromast complex; caudal peduncle thin and tapering.

Etymology

The specific name is from the Latin “mulleus” – a red shoe, in reference to the distinct deep–red ventral surface of the outer half of the pectoral and pelvic fins and the ventral surface of anal and caudal fins in fresh specimens.

Redshoes Coffinfish,
Chaunax mulleusHo, Roberts & Stewart 2013

References

Ho, H.-C., Roberts, C.D. & Stewart, A.L. 2013. A review of the anglerfish genus Chaunax (Lophiiformes: Chaunacidae) from New Zealand and adjacent waters, with descriptions of four new species. Zootaxa 3620 (1): 89-111. PDF available Open access